The second assignment task was to redesign a vinyl record cover for an artist of our choice. I chose to redesign an artwork for my favurite band elbow.
elbow are a progressive-rock / alt-rock / cinematic rock band from Bury in Manchester, England. The band was formed in the 90’s when the band members were in their final year at school. At their core, the four members that make up elbow have formed a strong creative partnership that allows for balance between the individual and the collective.
The relationship is built on mutual respect and admiration. The band’s adaptability and maturity has seen elbow consistently better all their previous signifiers of success as their careers have progressed over the decades. Since their formation, elbow have released eight studio albums, and won seven music awards as well as three other nominations.
Upon receiving this task, I knew immediately that I wanted to redesign an artwork for elbow. I have always adored their music and just recently after listening to their music more regularlay, I have realised they are definitely my favourite musical group.
I chose to recreate the band's third studio album "Leaders of the Free World" released in September of 2005.
elbow have cited many influences on their music style including;
Genesis, Peter Gabriel, Talk Talk & Radiohead
During my research I found an interview with front man, Guy Garvey discussing the songs on this album, explaining inspirations behind the songs. The explanations that stood out to me were of the songs "Picky Bugger", " Forget Myself" and "Leaders of the Free World"
these explanations helped me further develop my ideas as the lyrics and themes within the songs were similar to what I was hoping to convey through my design.
Garvey's explanation for the songs and an excerpt of some of the lyrics can be seen below.
Picky Bugger
"Preaching about what I most need to learn. A cautionary tale about excessive partying"
'drinking in order to feel.
thinking, reinventing the wheel.
kicking up mischief, and feeding the fire.
kicking up mischief and walking the wire.'
Forget Myself
"Friday nights, inner-city. Everybody is looking for love even if they would bother you for suggesting it. Subtitled "buddha with mace" it features a description of a bouncer I used to work with"
'They’re pacing Piccadilly in packs again
And moaning for the mercy of a never come rain
The suns had enough and the simmering sky
Has the heave and the hue of a woman on fire
Shop shutters rattle down and I’m cutting the crowd
All scented and descending from the satellite towns
The neon is graffiti singing make a new start
So I look for a plot where I can bury my broken heart
And moaning for the mercy of a never come rain
The suns had enough and the simmering sky
Has the heave and the hue of a woman on fire
Shop shutters rattle down and I’m cutting the crowd
All scented and descending from the satellite towns
The neon is graffiti singing make a new start
So I look for a plot where I can bury my broken heart
No I know I wont forget you but I’ll forget myself if the city will forgive me'
Leaders of the Free World
"I saw footage of Bush senior & Junior, when the latter (bush junior) was votes in for his second term. George W. was allbutshrugging his dad off & hogging the attention and I could suddenly see him as a spoilt, nasty, sefish little sh*t for brains"
'But the leaders of the free world
Are just little boys throwing stones
And its easy to ignore ‘til they’re knocking on the door of your homes
Are just little boys throwing stones
And its easy to ignore ‘til they’re knocking on the door of your homes
My thinking isn’t driven
But the music always gives me a lift
I’m so easy to please
But I think we dropped the baton like the 60’s didn’t happen. Oh no.
But the music always gives me a lift
I’m so easy to please
But I think we dropped the baton like the 60’s didn’t happen. Oh no.
Periscope up
Should be looking for a ladder
I need to see the commander in chief
And remind him what was passed onto me'
Should be looking for a ladder
I need to see the commander in chief
And remind him what was passed onto me'
I also researched my favourite contemporary art style from the 1950's - RetroFuturism.
"Retrofuturism is a movement in the creative arts showing the influence of depictions of the future produced in an earlier era. If futurism is sometimes called a "science" bent on anticipating what will come, retrofuturism is the remembering of that anticipation".
I absolutely love this art style, some notable artists of this time are;
Bruce McCall & Frank R Paul.
some other interesting artworks of this period show themes similar to my big idea for the final artwork.
my sketches post research show
1. A 1950's news anchor, with a retro television for his head.
2. A man sitting in an armchair holding the earth in his hand
3. a man controlled by strings, like a puppet.
Once I came up with my top 3 ideas, I went in to create them via pro-create
My first idea, I created digitally. As a reference, I used a photograph of my boyfriend and drew the television over his head. I thought at first of combining photography with digital art, but upon discussion with my tutors, we felt the art would look nicer as once cohesive image, using the same medium. that is digital illustration.
I then went to create digital iterations of my other ideas.
while creating these digital iterations i did some further research and came across this photo of Don Draper, of Mad Men. I loved it, it had the look I was going for. I created my inital idea using this photograph but had the idea to combine this idea with my first idea (putting the tv on the head of the man sitting down)
I was so happy with this image, I knew that this was going to be my final concept. However to keep originality I took photos of my boyfriend in a similar pose to sketch over.
once I had taken an image I was happy with, I went to work on creating the final image through procreate.
from this sketch, I created a colour pallete I wanted to use.
After deciding on the colour palette, I went to work on my final images for the album cover. I had the idea to fill the television screen with the colours you see in an "interruped broadcast" screen. Once my final images had been drawn, I went to work on creating the final mockups in photoshop.
After working in photoshop to get all the mockups done I went to work on my promotional poster. I wanted to link keep the poster really simple, so I continued the theme using the "interruped broadcast" colours from the centre of the vinyl and the televison screen, I also sed the same font that I used for the front of the album art.
